1880 11 7
|
“Later,” I say to the frisky crickets, verbal cash of the eggnog spa, spot of gum…
|
1190 8 8
|
We're killing off the elephants. We're killing off the tigers. We're killing off monarch butterflies. We're wrecking the coral reefs. Big sad gorillas don't feel at home in their own homes. And all instead of learning to live in some…
|
1112 8 8
|
Some days, you want all the red states to secede
|
977 12 6
|
you notice some of what
you need―
a pressure of something
you've intended,
somewhere without
a place,
|
1133 13 8
|
last night a girl came
to me in the shape
of my suicide.
|
1714 11 8
|
You the macho man
shuffling one woman
out the back entrance
to let another one in the front.
|
1297 13 8
|
If opposites attract, that might explain it, Doreen and I. Conjugally blissed through thick and thin. Forty some odd years. Since June of sixty five.
|
1209 13 7
|
|
1417 9 8
|
We've come this far. That's all we know. We've watched others reach their abrupt ends. They've given us this exact moment and we've taken it from them, sometimes without thinking. It's time for the next communication. I know what concern is…
|
1269 10 6
|
People Who Go to Poems for Truth
|
1200 11 8
|
nothing suffices as harbor / but a permit to claw at every yawing chasm
|
1386 10 7
|
Look at her. She doesn't want to be here. The kiss and “wouldn't miss it for the world” was as empty as her crossed arms, crossed legs, and jittery foot were loaded. She attacked the foam of her latte with a tiny red straw. I wanted to scream. Complain about the…
|
1229 11 8
|
The gaunt broken man walked with short quick steps on the uneven path.
|
1386 10 7
|
Moments before they had been holding
hands, but when they turned the corner and she told him she did not want to go down the dark path he had turned also, into someone she did not recognize and could not understand.
|
1347 8 8
|
Out the window we could see the parking lot and, across the street, the Bijou Moonlight Laundromat.
|
1345 9 7
|
500 miles
all the way from Omaha
nine hours
on the back of a flatbed truck
|
1425 7 5
|
I bleed my heart into my computer, peruse The fact they have proclaimed my root unfit for use But it is I! This manhood, this tower Extending up toward the heavens like a miraculous flower, Purple headed warrior of generation, See it standing…
|
420 16 7
|
#281: If you make it to the end on this one, I'll send you $1,000 in cash and a bag of apples. Your choices are Granny Smith and Fuji. I can also pay you in euros if that helps.
|
433 6 4
|
Amen, no more nothingness now, finally the hilarity of a band of abecedarians getting drunk on whiskey and beer. We've been in this place since 11 am, now its December in January On the toilet cubicle wall are words such as Sorry and …
|
1374 16 7
|
He wears an old black tux, shiny at the elbows, and his gray hair has been styled and sprayed into a fragile tornado. On his lap sits a Chihuahua wearing a bridal outfit—veil and all.
|
1180 10 7
|
There were too many laws but not enough of the kinds she wanted. She wished for the right to go shopping. Then taste rather than disposable income or access to finance could distinguish people.
|
1737 13 11
|
He had her pinned to the back seat, expressing his love. Do you love me? she whispered in his ear. Do you, do you, Jimmy Dale, do you love me? His only response…
|
1206 10 8
|
In a dream, he’s covered in masticated bits of paint and canvas and metal shavings and it keeps raining down until he’s buried and he wakes up with a yell.
|
1196 9 8
|
Over his usual ham sandwich and skim milk for lunch Uncle Waldo used to always say, “Going out in the dead of night without a flashlight is dangerous.” But I knew what I was doing. After dark, I'd slip out and sneaker on down the path to take a dip in a…
|
139 8 8
|
Then there was the slide, some time during late winter
|
916 14 7
|
The will to make/
remains
|
1563 11 8
|
Our next door neighbor is in love with his cat. His wife sits in our kitchen crying her eyes out.
|
1152 5 5
|
In an authentic Irish pub in Las Vegas where over much crowd noise the three of us are discussing Yeats, Joyce and Lady Gregory. We’re in an Irish pub after all, plus the fact we’re literature profs attending a Vegas academic conference.
|
1995 12 6
|
It’s about 4:30 when the phone rings. I look at the display and see it’s home.
“Hey,” I say picking up.
“I hate you,” says Jules.
“I hate, you, too,” I say. My co-workers don’t even blink. They’ve heard this before.
|
1524 10 8
|
"What mouths could not say, hands did."
|